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  • Privacy in the 21st Century: Issues for Public, School, and Academic Libraries
  • Marc Meola
Privacy in the 21st Century: Issues for Public, School, and Academic Libraries, Helen R. Adams, Robert F. Bocher, Carol A. Gordon, and Elizabeth Barry-Kessler. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005. 247p. $40.00 (ISBN 1-5915-8209-1)

Every day seems to bring a new technology, new piece of legislation, or new shocking revelation concerning the continuing erosion of some aspect of our privacy as citizens or consumers. This book aims to make sense of it all and collect in one place the most important resources for understanding and dealing with privacy issues as they relate to libraries. The authors are practitioners with experience in public, school, and academic libraries. The academic librarian is Carol Gordon, who is head of Pickering Educational Resources Library and associate professor of education at Boston University. In addition, Elizabeth Barry-Kessler is an attorney with experience at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

A reader of this book should gain at least three things: a clearer understanding of the confusing and changing array of laws, policies, and regulations at state and federal levels of government; an overview of the constantly changing and continuing stream of technological innovations that have both known and lesser known privacy implications; and finally how to take the standards of the library profession and apply them to the changing laws and technology to implement policy in a particular library. Even if the details do not sink in immediately, you will know a good place to look it up fast.

Concerning law and legislation, this work goes beyond Herbert Foerstel's Refuge of a Scoundrel (Libraries Unlimited, 2004), which focuses mainly on the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act, to include a helpful account of the origin of the right to privacy as interpreted in the Constitution, an overview of consumer and health and medical privacy laws, brief accounts of federal legislation such as FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act), COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), and NCIPA (Neighborhood Children's Internet Protection Act), as well as a detailed treatment of the USA PATRIOT Act. It also discusses state laws and privacy in the workplace.

The chapter on emerging technologies provides a good amount of information on recent technologies without overwhelming with too much detail. The authors provide a straightforward explanation of the threat to privacy from technologies such as spyware, cookies, RFID, GPS, and biometrics. Since the library environment is so infused with technology, librarians must stay up to date on the privacy implications of new devices, and this chapter simplifies that often difficult and time-consuming task. In-depth details then follow regarding the special circumstances for public, school, and academic libraries. Since many academic libraries have overlapping missions, reading all these sections is worthwhile. Academic librarians are presented with specific strategies for their particular setting, such as dealing with institutional context, handling relationships with vendors, and conducting privacy audits.

Finally, the authors provide an annotated source list of privacy-related resources, such as books, articles, organizations, and Web sites. Three appendices are also included, featuring the full text of key privacy documents of the American Library Association, examples of privacy audit documents, and sample privacy and [End Page 233] confidentiality policies. Rounding it all out is a helpful glossary for when you need to know the difference between COPA (Child Online Protection Act) and COPPA. This book is clearly written, well organized, and an outstanding contribution to the literature on privacy.

Marc Meola
The College of New Jersey
meolam@tcnj.edu
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